How to ask a question about....

1. Incorrect. Your question is in the past tense

2. Correct

3. Ungrammatical...."were you" NOT "was you".

4. Incorrect "You" are the indirect object NOT the subject of "telling".

fresco is right -- as the questions stand, 2. is the only grammatical way to ask the question you phrase.

I disagree with 1. being in the past tense. "Are you being told..." indicates present tense, that the subject is being told something at the same time that the question is being asked. It's still incorrect, just not past tense.

And 3 could be correct if you left out the "being". "Were you told that..." would be correct.

You could use 4. with the phrasing, "Did you know that..." This wouldn't indicate whether your someone had been told, had read the information, or just knew it all along, but it would find out if he knows the info.

Thanks for your thorough explaination. For 1), does it mean that it's grammatically correct but doesn't make sense in logic ?

Is there any difference between 2) and modified 3) ?

1) Are you being told that..... "are you being" indicates the present tense. Are you being told (right now) that...

2) Have you been told that....

3) Was you being told that...Were you told that.. .. no real difference between 2) and modified 3)

4) Did you ..?? did you get told......... is good and would mean the same as 2) and modified 3)

"Did you get told" is understandable as English, but it's notoriously bad grammar. People might use it colloquially, but it grates on my sensibilities a bit.

3) was originally progressive, so you'd probably correct it to "Were you being told that" which is odd, but not ungrammatical. Compared to 2) (have you been told...) it would mean, "were you in the process of being told, just now" as opposed to "were you told at some indeterminate point in the past." Like dadpad said, "were you told that.." is essentially the same as 2).

Hi again,

"Are you being told" is logical, it just indicates the present tense -- so you'd know if the person was being told because you'd be there. It might be used in a construction like "Are you being told what your duties are when you report in to work?" meaning, does someone tell you what to do each day...

"Were you being told" would apply in a sentence like "Were you being told (whatever information) when the door blew shut?"

"Were you told" would indicate having been told at any time in the past.